Best Practices for Prepaid Experiences

Prepaid experiences reduce no-shows, allowing higher guest commitment and better planning for your business. This guide offers best practices to follow when offering prepaid reservations.

Create a prepaid experience 

To create a prepaid Experience, follow the steps to create an Experience.

Update your policies 

Policies inform guests of guidelines for cancellations and changes. For example, specify whether all sales are final, or if your business requires guests to cancel within a certain timeframe. To learn more, visit Configuring Guest Modification Policies.

Guest communications

Reminder emails and text messages help reduce no-shows and last minute cancellations, and are enabled by default. If you’d like to customize or disable these messages, visit Cusromizing Automated Messages to your Guests.

Add a menu

Add menu items within the Add-ons tab or Menus tab of your Experience.

For multiple pricing tiers (e.g., adult vs. child price), set the Pricing and policy tab to $0 and pricing tiers through Add-ons tab or Menus tab.

To create multiple pricing tiers through Add-ons:

1. From the Control Panel tab, click Experiences. 
2. Select the Experience, then click Add-ons.
3. Click + Create add-on group and click Create new add-on group or Create add-on group from existing offering. If creating a new Add-on group, add a Name and Description. These fields will be visible to guests.
4. Select the Section limit.
   • Select Limit one per person for  guests to  select one pricing option in this section for each person in their party.
5. Select box to require guests to select at least one Add-on from the group.
6. Click Create.
7. Click + Create add-on.
8. Add a Name, Description, Price, Image, and Tax.
9. Click Create.
10. Click + Create add-on to offer additional prices.
    
    

To create multiple pricing tiers through Menus and Items:

1. From the Control Panel tab, click Menus and Items. 
2. Click Create new menu and enter the Menu name. The name is for your internal reference and will not be visible to guests. 
3. Click Create menu.
4. Click Add section and enter a Section name and Description. These fields will be visible to guests.
5. Select the Section limit.

• Select Limit one per person for guests to select one pricing option in this section for each person in their party.

6. Check Required selection and click Add Section.
7. Click the X in the top-right corner to close the Section detail view.
8. Click Add Item, select Add new item.
9. Select the section name from the dropdown.
10. Enter Name and optional Display name.
11. Click Add item. 
12. Click Add new item to offer additional prices.
13. Visit Linking a Menu to an Experience, to link a menu to an Experience.
    
    

If guests will purchase menu items on-site, allow them to view options in advance by listing your menu in the Experience description.

Promote your prepaid experience

• Email your guests a marketing campaign.
• Add a booking widget to your website.
• Post on social media and tag @exploretock.